Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – Howard M. Talenfeld, one of the nation’s preeminent children’s rights attorneys, was selected to the Florida Super Lawyers 2016 list in the category of Civil Rights. Talenfeld has been listed in Florida Super Lawyers Magazine since 2006 and was named in the “Top 100: 2014 Miami Super Lawyers” list.
Talenfeld is the Founder and Managing Partner of Talenfeld Law, the first law firm in Florida to focus exclusively on protecting the rights of physically and sexually abused, medically fragile, foster and other at-risk children. He is known throughout the legal community and national media as having established the nation’s premier children’s rights practice. His work on behalf of at-risk individuals has earned multimillion dollar awards and resulted in sweeping judicial and legislative reforms.
Among his wins, Talenfeld earned significant damages awards and settlements against New York City and the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, which together paid more than $27 million in the case of Judith Leekin, a foster mother whose “house of horrors” imprisoned, abused and starved 10 disabled foster children. In Florida, he is responsible for scores of million dollar plus victories in federal civil rights claims against DCF employees and providers also resulting in the landmark decisional law protecting the rights of children and disabled persons. Talenfeld was among the first attorneys nationally to utilize the federal civil rights damage statute 42 USC section 1983 to recover damages for injured foster children. In the 2001 case Roe v. Florida Department of Children & Family Services, he recovered a $5 million dollar damage award, an amount in excess of Florida’s sovereign immunity limit of $100,000, on behalf of six foster children. In another example, the state agreed to pay more than $14 million in a case where foster mother Nellie Johnson repeatedly and brutally beat her foster children, even after the Florida Department of Children and Families knew of the harm they were enduring.
Earlier this year, Talenfeld was honored with the University of Miami Law Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award and received the Professional Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daily Business Review. Additionally, he has been recognized for his efforts with The Florida Bar’s “President’s Award of Merit” and the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the 17th Judicial Circuit. He also received Legal Aid’s Russell Carlisle Award for child advocacy law. Talenfeld is founding president of Florida’s Children First, the state’s preeminent non-profit that advocates for foster children and the developmentally disabled.
Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters subsidiary, is an attorney rating service that spans more than 70 practice areas and uses a rigorous, multi-phased process to accomplish its rankings. The annual selections are made based upon a statewide survey of lawyers and an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews.
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About Talenfeld Law
Talenfeld Law is led by one of the nation’s preeminent children’s rights attorneys focusing exclusively on protecting the rights of physically and sexually abused children, developmentally disabled children and other at-risk children. Learn more at 844-4KIDLAW or http://www.justiceforkids.us.
